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How is NPM more reliable or easy to use than rubygems? In my opinion Rubygems (with bundler) was the gold standard, and maybe now Cargo (Rust) or Stackage (Hask
by tinco 7y ago
How is NPM more reliable or easy to use than rubygems? In my opinion Rubygems (with bundler) was the gold standard, and maybe now Cargo (Rust) or Stackage (Haskell) has stolen its crown.
Python package management is a drama, but I've heard Java developers defend their system, forgot if it was maven or gradle.
My main issue with NPM was belatedly solved when Yarn came out. The whole node_modules thing makes me consider it inferior to the others I mentioned, but I'm not sure it can be called a problem.
- baroffoos 7y agoMy main complaint about npm/yarn is that they keep the library code in the project dir and only keep the exact versions and packages that you are using so every time you switch branch you constantly have to run yarn to get the right package versions unlike with ruby gems where there is a folder outside of the project dir which contains a cache of everything you have downloaded and it all just works after branch switches.
- fnky 7y agoYarn Plug n Play tries to address this and other problems with node_modules such as heavy and deep trees of dependencies that fill up your computer for each project. It generates a .pnp.js file that tells Yarn where packages are located, so they can effectively be installed once and used in multiple projects.
- norswap 7y agoWell one easy point is that rubygem doesn't allow easy local installations. Heck it doesn't even allow specifying all your dependencies — you have to use Bundler for that. More anecdotally, I've had bad experiences with upgrades, though admittedly, the fact that Windows support is a second-class citizen in many popular gems might have been part of that.